The invention relates to a kit for sealingly and removably fastening the outer surface of at least one edge of a shower curtain of a shower enclosure to one wall of the shower enclosure. More specifically, the invention relates to such an arrangement for sealingly and removably joining the at least one edge of the shower curtain to the one wall of the shower to easily and effectively seal the enclosure.
Kits for removably joining one edge of a shower curtain to a wall of the shower enclosure are known in the art as illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,610, Mortensen, May 7, 1974, U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,072, Dezura, Mar. 7, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,547, Riekse, Sep. 14, 1965 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,087, Zeilinger, Jul. 26, 1988.
The '610 patent uses Velcro.RTM. strips for joining the curtain edge to the wall. Additionally, it requires a rail-type arrangement to be mounted on each wall which is difficult to use.
The '072 patent also uses Velcro strips along the walls and Velcro dots for matingly joining with the Velcro strips. Because the Velcro strips and dots are not continuous, water can seep through between the edges of the curtains and the walls i.e., the arrangement does not provide a seal.
The '547 and '087 patents use rubberized mating arrangements for sealingly joining the edges of the curtains to the walls of the shower enclosure. The rubber material tends to loosen in the hot, wet, humid environment of the shower so that the life of the arrangement in the '547 patent is limited. In addition, the arrangements are difficult to operate because of the need to manipulate the insertion to seal and unseal the edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,187, Schuler, Jun. 8, 1982, teaches a shower curtain arrangement using a Velcro fastener, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,771,945, Wittrup, Nov. 27, 1956, teaches a shower curtain using a zipper fastener.
All of the kits illustrated in the patents suffer from their inability to handle water at the corner where the curtains meet the walls, i.e., at the edges of the curtains where they are removably joined to the walls.